DeutschlandCard Boosts Datawarehouse Updates, Queries, and Capacity with Engineered Systems
 
 

DeutschlandCard Boosts Datawarehouse Updates, Queries, and Capacity with Engineered Systems

Printer View Printer View

DeutschlandCard is the name of a customer loyalty program operated in Germany since 2008 by DeutschlandCard GmbH, an affiliated company of German Bertelsmann Group, one of the world's largest media corporations. The program offers companies an effective tool for customer relationship management in the shape of a customer card. Consumers are rewarded for their loyalty with discounts and bonuses. A wide range of partners ensures that customers reap benefits fast. For the companies this means that the customer relationship is quickly strengthened. In addition, they obtain diverse information on the behavior of the program participants in all sales channels. They can thus address new target groups and raise their profile. More than eleven million customers have a DeutschlandCard. Each of them uses the card around seven times per month at any of more than 10,000 participating partner stores, which include Germany's leading retailers, across numerous consumer-oriented industries. Consumers accumulate bonus points by shopping at the retail locations, and then exchange those points for awards and bonuses listed in DeutschlandCard's catalog, pay at the checkout directly with bonus points (in-store redemption), or donate points to charitable organizations. DeutschlandCard is a subsidiary of arvato, the global outsourcing service provider of the Bertelsmann Group.

After integrating a new program partner that had a very large data volume from the company's bonus card program, DeutschlandCard GmbH needed to ensure the speed of extract-transform-load (ETL) processes and structured query language (SQL) queries, achieve a substantial increase in data warehouse capacity, and provide stable operations without unplanned downtime.

The company chose Oracle Exadata Database Machine with Oracle Exadata Start-Up Pack Service, including 15 days consulting and quarterly patching service for one year, to ensure a hassle-free implementation of Oracle Exadata and its immediate entry into production. As a result, DeutschlandCard achieved substantially faster ETL processes and reporting on the first day of operation, and much higher SQL-query performance, while ensuring stable operations and minimum downtime.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from DeutschlandCard GmbH

  • "With Oracle Exadata Database Machine, we can process the most complex ad-hoc queries and generate results within minutes. In addition, Oracle Advanced Customer Support Services helped Bertelsmann Group's IT service provider deliver a streamlined deployment that rapidly strengthened our analytical and decision-making capabilities. DeutschlandCard's partner companies benefit from marketing automation in terms of campaign efficiency, while customers receive those offers that most interest them and are most promising for the partner companies." – Dr. Clemens Schäffner, Director Business Intelligence and IT, Member of the Board, DeutschlandCard GmbH

  • Enable bonus card users across Germany to register and realize transactions online—24 hours a day, 365 days a year—by ensuring the speed of ETL processes and SQL queries, providing stable operation without unplanned downtime and permitting massive scalability on demand
  • Achieve a substantial increase in data warehouse capacity following the integration of a new partner in the bonus card program whose data volumes required very large transactional and storage capabilities
  • Migrate existing systems and databases to ensure a high level of transactional performance across all applications and guarantee the security of IT investments
  • Achieve fast and safe deployment of Oracle Exadata Database Machine, including migrations, without putting a strain on the company's IT personnel

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Integrated Oracle Exadata Database Machine within the scheduled, short timeframe of three months into the company's IT infrastructure, following Oracle Advanced Customer Support Services' product readiness assessment, which ensures that the machine fits seamlessly into the company's IT environment
  • Used Oracle Exadata Start-Up Pack Service, including 15 days consulting and quarterly patching service for one year, to ensure Oracle Exadata's hassle-free implementation and immediate entry into production—coordinated and surveyed by a dedicated Oracle Advanced Customer Support Services Delivery Manager who worked directly with the IT services department of arvato IT Services and acted as central point of contact
  • Migrated existing systems and databases to Oracle Exadata, providing the company with unmatched data warehouse performance and stability to ensure a high level of transactional performance across all applications and guarantee return on investment
  • Achieved substantially faster ETL processes and reporting on the first day of operation
  • Provided much higher SQL query performance than in the previous environment, while ensuring stable operations and minimum downtime
  • Deployed a second Oracle Exadata Database Machine with Oracle Exadata Storage Expansion Quarter Rack after integrating a new program partner with very large amounts of bonus card program data, ensuring a high level of operational performance and sufficient data warehouse capacity
  • Reduced the time required to perform daily batch processes by half, collecting data from online stores each evening to update the data warehouse in the early morning to provide professional users with updated information when they start work at 9 a.m.
  • Delivered quarterly patch management during precisely defined downtime windows to ensure up-to-date patch levels, which are of utmost importance for stable operations and constitute a prerequisite for secure enhancements of system capacities and functionalities
  • Worked with Oracle Advanced Customer Support Services and the IT services department of arvato IT Services to ensure end-to-end planning, coordinated service delivery, and a seamless Oracle Exadata roll-out

Why Oracle

"The Oracle Exadata package, comprising servers, storage, networking, and software, constitutes the perfect IT environment for the DeutschlandCard loyalty program. We combined it with Exadata Start-Up Pack Service to ensure a seamless deployment," said Dr. Clemens Schäffner, director business intelligence and IT, member of the board, DeutschlandCard GmbH. "We are very pleased with the patch management, delivered during precisely defined downtime windows by Oracle Advanced Customer Support Services—and the thorough coordination with the IT services provider of the Bertelsmann Group, which ensure the seamless operation of DeutschlandCard's Oracle Exadata environment."

Resources